"Since the Ensemble SuperMusique was founded, one of our main concerns has been to explore improvisation and the way it could be integrated to (or even become an intergral part of) written music. Graphic scores has thus seemed to us as a most suitable working tool. Indeed, graphic scores allow the musicians to follow more or less elaborate paths to either freely improvise, originally interpret sets of instructions or play written music.

This album features three compositions using graphic scores to attain the same goal: to offer the musicians involved as much freedom as possible within a very precise framework. Each one of these compositions presents the musicians with very different options and frameworks, from the broadest to the narrowest.

Danielle Palardy Roger's composition is a journey through time. The drawn elements of her graphic score bear an apparent similarity to traditionally notated music, but they cannot be precisely read by the players, thus retaining the composition's variable and subjective distinctiveness.

In Joane Hetu's composition, the players are required as well to follow a very detailed temporal journey in which contrasting moods follow each other. All instructions are provided by words, drawings and colors; the musicians then constantly navigate between more "fixed" and more "blurry" sections.

Finally, Lisa Cay Miller's composition works on two different levels. At first visually presented as a checkerboard on which the players move, it incorporates at the same time traditionally notated phrases. Musicians must then switch from free improvised sections to precisely notated rhythmic patterns.

Les porteuses d'O (The Water Carriers) features three composers who are actively involved in musique actuelle and improvised music's creation and distribution: Lisa Cay Miller, with NOW Society in Vancouver; Joane Hetu and Danielle Palardy Roger, with SuperMusique in Montreal.

Les porteuses d'O seemed a very proper title indeed. Not only because it makes a direct reference to Lisa Cay Miller's composition, but also because it admirably depicts three women who, with all their strenght and determination, have been carrying on their shoulders (and still do) whatever it needs to sustain and develop new and creative music. This compositions have been commissioned and premiered thanks to Productions SuperMusique and Le Vivier - Carrefour des musiques nouvelles in Montreal. Our sincere thanks to all the musicians involved for their unrelenting commitment."-Ambiances Magnetiques

"Founded in 1998, the ever-changing Ensemble SuperMusique is one of the few Canadian ensembles entirely devoted to "musique actuelle" and free improvisation. Different composers/musicians from the ensemble itself alternate as leader of the band, but very rarely conduct the ensemble orchestra-style. The repertoire of the Ensemble SuperMusique comprises works by leading "musique actuelle" and improv stalwart composers from both the Canadian and international scenes.

Their compositions range from graphic scores to traditionally notated ones; in certain specific cases, they could even resort to orally transmitted instructions. The ensemble's musicians play a very important role both as performers and improvisers. Quite often, they receive specific instructions not to blend in the ensemble's sound; on the contrary, they are to be considered as soloists, and as such hired for their sonic specificity.

This musicians have developed over the years a significant understanding of "musique actuelle"'s specific musical idiom and as such have been widely recognized as accomplished masters."-Ensemble Supermusique website